1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer having a vacuum platen that conveys a recording medium held by suction, and relates more particularly to an inkjet printer in which the recording medium transportation path is opened by opening the cover to which the vacuum platen is attached.
2. Description of Related Art
Inkjet printers that print on roll paper or other continuous recording medium and have a vacuum platen to prevent the printing paper transported over the platen from rising off the platen and interfering with the nozzle surface of the inkjet head are known from the literature. Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2002-264414, for example, teaches a printer having a vacuum platen with numerous suction holes for pulling the recording medium to the platen surface.
When loading the roll paper in an inkjet printer that prints to roll paper, it is also necessary to set the recording medium delivered from the paper roll stored in the roll paper compartment between the inkjet head and platen, between the paper feed roller and pressure roller, and out from the paper exit. To simplify this paper loading task, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2006-248040 teaches a printer configured so that opening the cover to the roll paper compartment also opens the roll paper transportation path.
This inkjet printer configured so that opening the cover also opens the roll paper transportation path has the platen that opposes the inkjet head mounted on the cover side of the transportation path. When the vacuum platen is disposed to the cover, the suction opening of the vacuum fan on the stationary printer frame side must be connected by a vacuum duct to the vacuum platen, which is on the cover and thus moves.
The vacuum duct must therefore be flexible and long enough to adjust to the variable distance between the vacuum platen and the vacuum fan when the cover opens and closes, or the vacuum duct must be routed through the center of the opening and closing motion of the cover so that the duct is not affected by a change in length when the cover opens and closes. Because the length of the vacuum duct changes in both of these configurations, however, path resistance increases in the vacuum path through the vacuum duct and loss of suction therefore also increases. It is therefore necessary to use a relatively high capacity vacuum fan, and this interferes with reducing printer size and cost.